Yet more cards ...

Hello again :)

Just thought I'd quickly show you some cards I made last night - I found some old Bazzill Chip Toppers that I had bought a couple of years ago, and hadn't used, so I thought I may as well turn them into some cards! I'm quite pleased with how they've turned out too :)







And this last one is using some of the new Kaiser rub-ons that are now available - great for cards!




That's all for now - will hopefully get some more done on my layouts soon, so will be able to post pics of those as well in the not-too-distant future.

Hope you are all well, and I'll talk to you soon.

Cheers,
Ness.
xoxo

Finally!!

Hello all :)

I am pleased to announce that I FINALLY did a layout last night! Well, actually, I half-did a layout ... but at least it's a start :D Actually, I half-did two layouts, so that nearly adds up to one full layout in my books - yippee!!

I had the chance to meet a couple of scrapping friends last night for the first time (hello to you, Sandy and Renee, and also to you Belinda :) ), and I had a lovely time. Drove down to Sandy's family beach house in Blairgowrie, and chatted up a storm. Also got a little bit of scrapping done, which was a bonus.

The layouts aren't finished yet, as I didn't take all my stuff with me (I never know what to pack to take, as I never know what I will end up working on ...), but hopefully I'll get a chance to finish them off tonight, and will be able to post a pic soon.

Life in the Bradford household has been particularly busy of late ... we had a lovely family catch-up last weekend - it was a chance for my boys to meet their 2nd cousins for the first time (Nick's cousin's kids ... I think that makes them 2nd cousins?? I have no idea how all that stuff works ...), so we had a lovely drive down to Grovedale, and it turned out to be a beautiful day, so the kids all went for a wander around the farm.

And our Saturday mornings for the majority of the rest of the year have been booked up, thanks to Ashton's Auskick commitments. I have now joined the club of parents that are rapidly losing contact with their spare time on weekends. Spare time?? What's that????

We've had brew days, and dinners, and school open nights and investigation days, and rock'n'roll theme days, and we even went and saw a movie a couple of weeks ago - I can't honestly remember the last movie that I saw in a cinema ... I think it was one of the Lord of the Rings films. I kid you not. It's been that long. So, we had some Gold Class tickets to use, and went and saw the new Star Trek movie - and I really enjoyed it. Nick liked it so much he and Justin went and saw it together only a couple of nights later.

And the next couple of months are going to be equally busy for us - we've got a few gigs to go to (which I am very excited about - COG are first, in early June, then the long awaited Karnivool gig in late June, and then The Butterfly Effect in mid-July), and there's a trivia night at school which I'm getting a table together for - I love trivia nights, they are always so much fun!

And, the birthday season is about to start for us too - Liam's birthday is in July, and all of Ashton's friends start having their 6th birthdays from June through until about October, and then, before you know it, it's going to be Christmas again - aaaaagggghhhhhhh!!

Ok, I think I need to get a bit of perspective here... it is still only May. Just. It's going to be June before we know it though - my how quickly time is flying at the moment.

I've also been very busy behind the scenes working on a little project of mine, which I can't say too much about just yet, but will be sure to tell you all about it when it's up and running. This has also been taking up the rest of my spare time that is left, so I have been a very busy little bee.

Anyway, now, I think it's time to try and finish off those layouts ... I hope you are all well, enjoy your weekend, and I will talk to you again soon.

Cheers,
Ness.
xoxo

Still no layouts for me ...

... but I have been making yet more cards. Just can't seem to get any ideas flowing at all for the layouts unfortunately. Hopefully some inspiration will strike soon! I need to do a photo swap layout, and 4 CJ entries - eek!

Anyway, here are some of the cards I've made this week. I personally particularly love the brown and teal combination :)








This last card was a make-to-order for Nick's mum, who had a party to go to on the weekend. It was a combined 40th wedding anniversary and 60th birthday celebration, with a ruby red theme, so this is what I came up with for her.


Anyway, I've got a friend coming over today who wants to have a look through my scrapping albums, and get some hints and tips as she's just starting scrapbooking herself, so I'd better actually clean up my room a bit, so I can find things to show her!

Hope you all have a great week, and I'll talk so you soon.

Ness.
xoxo

It's been so long ...

... since I've done a layout, I've almost forgotten what to do!

I have been making so many cards of late, that when I sat down tonight to do a CJ entry for the Scrapchat CJ swap, I just sat and stared at the cardstock for a while, with absolutely no inspiration flowing at all! I had heaps of ideas for more cards, but layouts - nope, nothing!

Oh well, after much deliberation, I got there in the end, and will be sending off my entry for Possum's CJ tomorrow. The only problem is that Possum's entry was meant to have been done in March, so now I have to do the two I was supposed to do in April! I hope more inspiration strikes soon ...

The Bradford household has been fairly busy this week - Ashton had Auskick again on Saturday morning, and then Nick had another brew day on Saturday afternoon, which of course led into dinner on Saturday night with the Carrolls :) On Sunday morning, I braved the extremely cold weather and headed out to a local craft market, and then we went over to the in-laws for dinner on Sunday night. And then, it was back to work again on Monday.

I did find some time last week to make a few more cards ... here are some of my latest offerings.







And now, I need to work on a layout for a photo swap that I'm doing through Scrapchat - it's been soooooo long since I've done a full size layout, I hope I can do the photos justice.

I hope you've all had a great week so far, and I'll talk to you soon.

Ness.
xoxo

Cards, cards and more cards!

Hello again :)

I have been a busy little bee this week, making heaps of cards for my little stash, as I will be having a market stall with my mother-in-law later in the year. She makes felt scarves and hats and silk scarves and things, and we'll be sharing a few stalls at the Warrandyte Craft Market. I'll also be doing some more of my monograms, and some canvases as well I think, and some of my decorated greeting card gift boxes.

Anyway, here are a few of the cards I've made this week ... I've made multiples for most of these designs as well.












So, as you can see, I've been busy!

On top of making heaps of cards, we had a busy week with the school holidays as well. We went camping over the Easter weekend, and then on Monday we went to the Melbourne Museum, Tuesday was a trip to the park, Wednesday was Scienceworks, Thursday was a visit to Great Grandma Amy, and then I was back at work today, so Liam went to childcare, and Nick took Ashton rollerskating! From all reports, they had an absolutely fabulous time - Ashton can't wait to go again, and take me along. It's been over 20 years since I last went rollerskating - I hope there's a little bit of muscle memory there somewhere ....

I've been looking forward to this weekend for a while now - my friend Tanja is coming up on Saturday for a bit of a scrap session and will be staying the night, and the lovely Kath will be joining us as well! (I'm sending Nick and the boys over to keep Justin and the kids company, while Kath comes here to play :) ). Will be a lovely night, and I'm very much looking forward to catching up with them both. Might even get something made too! LOL

Anyway, I'm off to chat on Facebook now ... won't be up too late tonight - it's Ashton's first morning at Auskick in the morning, which he's really looking forward too.

Until next time, take care, and I'll talk to you soon.
Ness.
xoxo

Notice anything different?

Yes, it's pretty obvious ... I've decided on a change of template for the blog again. Was getting bored with the old colours, so I've gone with one that is nice and clean for a bit of a change.

I'm sorry that I haven't really blogged much lately, but I haven't really had an awful lot to tell you all.

We had an interesting weekend last weekend - we decided on Sunday to take a drive out to Marysville, to see for ourselves the effects of the bushfires. I knew it wasn't going to be particularly pleasant, but it was something that I felt I needed to do. It was very sad to see that the Black Spur has been burnt, but thankfully there are parts of it that are untouched by the fires. The drive into Marysville itself was a different story - Narbethong, at the turn-off, has basically been reduced to rubble, and there's not much standing all the way in to Marysville. There are a few very very lucky houses, and some not-so-lucky right next door, and then once you round the last bend coming into town, all that is left is a few chimneys and twisted corrugated iron. There is one house down to the left that appears to be untouched, but everything else that you can see from the main road is gone. Thankfully, the beautiful bakery in the main street is still standing (although only just - all the gardens are burnt, and the building right next door is gone ...) and was doing a ripper trade with the lunch crowd.

We sat down and had some lunch ourselves, and then wandered down the main street, remembering what it used to be like. For the last 10 years, we have spent the Christmas/New Years period in the Marysville area, and it feels like a second home to us. It was a very sobering afternoon, but I am glad we went to see it.

After much consideration, I did take some photos of the main street, which I will probably turn into a layout at some stage in the near future.

Anyway, on a lighter note, we got back today from a couple of days away camping - our friends Greg and Brooke invited us to go away with them for the long weekend, and Greg's brother and his girlfriend joined us as well. Headed down to the lovely Golden Beach, on the 90 Mile Beach south of Sale, which is a bit of a favourite spot of ours. It's such a lovely beach, and the campsites are terrific - right behind the sand dunes, tucked under the teatree. The kids and the dogs had a fabulous time frolicking on the beach (as did the adults, mind you!) --- it's hard NOT to have a great time at a beautiful place like that.

Greg's brother proposed to his girlfriend last week (and she said yes!), so they will be busy planning their wedding from here on in. I think I will be doing their wedding invitations too ... can't help myself! :)

I haven't really done much scrapping in the last couple of weeks - the mojo seems to have taken a bit of a holiday, but I have at least been making quite a few cards, which has been nice. I will take a couple of pics in the daylight, and will upload them soon.

I have been having some trouble with an online scrapping store of late, not sending out my orders (there are two), and not responding to my attempts to communicate with them, so I have been forced to take the matter to the next level, which was something I was hoping I wouldn't have to do. Unfortunately, I am not alone in my complaints. Hopefully we will all have a satisfactory resolution to the problems shortly ... I just want the stuff that I have paid for; I don't think that is being unreasonable at all. I think this could be contributing to my lack of mojo too ...

Anyway, I'm loving the fact that I don't have to go back to work until next Friday - it's fabulous! Nick's got the whole week off too, with time in lieu that he has accrued, and he's got the following Monday off as well, and then the following Friday! How good is that?

I hope everyone has had a lovely Easter so far ... and I'll talk to you soon.
Ness.
xoxo

It's been a long time ...

... since I've made any cards at all - I was very out of practice!

Here are a couple of cards that I made last night, using two of the retiring stamp sets that I purchased from Stampin' Up!





And now that the housework is all done, all I need to do is plan something to cook for dinner (and then go shopping for it), and then I think I'll take my littlest man to the park for a bit - it's a gorgeous Melbourne day today - I think it's predicted to get to 30 degrees. Hopefully Liam will get tired at the park, and have a nice little afternoon nap, and I can get some more cards made.

Talk to you soon,
Ness.
xoxo

The new Stampin' Up! Catalogue is out!

Hi there ...

Just thought I'd let you know that today is the 1st of April :)

So, firstly, happy April Fool's Day to everyone (and I hope none of you were subjected to any tom-foolery this morning), and secondly, that means that the new Stampin' Up! 2009-2010 Idea Book & Catalogue has been released!

If you would like to take a look at all the lovely new products available, here is a link to the online catalogue.

The products retiring from the old catalogue are now no longer available ... but there are some lovely stamp sets in the new catalogue that have taken their place, and I really like the layout of the new catalogue too.

If you are interested in purchasing a new catalogue, or indeed if you are interested in purchasing any of the products from the new catalogue, please send me an email (vbradford@optusnet.com.au) - I'd be happy to hep you out.

Now ... in other news, I actually made some cards last night! It's been sooooooo long since I've made any cards (aside from one wedding card that I came home and made in between Greg and Brooke's ceremony and reception!) - I'll take a couple of pics and upload them later.

I hope everyone has had a lovely week so far ... and I'll talk to you soon.

Ness.
xoxo

Such a good night last night ....

Hello all :)

Last night I had the opportunity to do a class at Scrapchat, run by the very lovely and supremely talented Leanne Stamatellos (aka the main subject of my scrap-stalking LOL), with the kits available through Tanyah at Scrapncraft with T.

Leanne had designed a beautiful layout for us all to emulate ... and here is my take on it.

I had originally decided to use a different photo to this one, but couldn't think of an appropriate title for it, and I then decided that I wanted to scrap in 8.5 x 11 for the Book of Me album I'm working on, so chose this photo mid-class instead.... apologies for the quality of the photo, but it was taken at around midnight last night. :)




Journalling reads: "Turning 37 this year bothered me a bit. It's getting very close to 40. But then I remembered .... I have a wonderful husband, 2 beautiful children, and many wonderful friends. I am happy being me."

I am very happy with how the layout turned out (thanks Leanne!!), and am also very pleased that I decided to go with the 8.5 x 11 format.

I would have taken a better photo of it today, but we have had a house full of people for most of the day today, and I just never got a chance. Nick had decided to invite 'the guys from work' over for a bbq, and so, with partners, and associated kids, and a mother-in-law (yes, a mother-in-law came as well), we had a grand total of 22 people here for lunch! Phew!

Arrival time was midday today, and here I am .... finally getting some time to myself .... as the last guests left at 8.35pm tonight. Such a long day! But, it was good to meet everyone that Nick works with, and their partners, and I think the day was a success. I'm sure Nick will get the debrief tomorrow at work, but it looked to me like everyone was having a good time.

So now, it's time for me to catch up on all the emails and forum posts, and then I think I might get an early night tonight.

I hope everyone has had a lovely weekend, and I'll talk to you soon.

Ness.
xoxo

Another layout done ....

Hello again!

Here is a layout I did this week for Scrapping Around, using the Kaiser 'Lovestruck' papers.

I just adore this pic of Liam, with his girlfriend (and my future daughter-in-law) Hannah. I have flocked the title (and half of my scrap room to boot ...) and think it's all turned out ok.


In other scrap-related news, I received an email back from Scrapbook Creations this morning - I decided to submit a layout for publication about a month ago, and this morning they advised that they wanted to publish it!!

So, I now have my first ever published layout appearing in edition 67 (which is the June edition I think), and now another layout will be appearing in edition 69. Fingers crossed it doesn't get bumped!

Nothing much else to report in my world at the moment ... so I'll sign off for now.

Hope you're all having a lovely Wednesday!

Talk to you soon,
Ness.
xoxo.

March mega month-long cybercrop ...

Hello again -

Well, it was time tonight for me to upload my challenge for Week 2 of the March Mega Month Long Cybercrop over at Scrapchat.

My challenge was :

Your challenge, should you choose to accept it, is to create a layout that:

- Must have a black and white photo
- Must have 3 different types of patterned paper
- Must have a large journalling tag
- Must have rub-ons
- Must have bling
- Must have some ribbon, and a button on it somewhere.

No problems you say?? Well ....

... to make it just that little bit more challenging, one piece of your patterned paper has to have stripes on it, and one piece has to have polkadots on it!


And here is the sample layout that I prepared for it:


We also had a lovely chat tonight with Leanne Stamatellos - and I have to say that I am VERY much looking forward to doing Leanne's class through Scrapchat next weekend ... her layouts have always appealed to me; I really really love her scrapping style. Kits for the class are available through Scrap N Craft With T - it's going to be great!

Well, I should really get to bed ... I've got to take the boys to a 5th birthday party tomorrow, and a 1st birthday party on Sunday, and I have a feeling I will regret not having enough sleep!

Talk to you soon,
Ness.

A week full of scrapping ...

Hello again!

Well, this week, I've been able to get quite a bit of scrapping done, in between housework and coffees of course!

I've finally worked on a Kaiser car album that has been sitting in my OTP drawer for ages now ... it's good to finally take it off the to-do list.

Here are the pics ...


Finally had a play with Heidi Swapp ghost letters - they're tricky little things to use, aren't they?? I ended up running them through my xyron machine, which seems to have worked a treat, and then traced around the edges in permanent marker so that they were defined a bit.

Now I need to finish getting dinner ready, and think about what I want to work on tonight :)

Hope you've all had a lovely Thursday ...

Talk so you soon,
Ness.
xoxo

Scrapping Around March CC is underway ...

Evening all -

Just letting you know that the Scrapping Around March CC has now kicked off, and I have just loaded the first challenge up.

Challenge #1 is:

You need to do a layout ( any size ) that includes your favourite Autumn photo (or, if you don't have one, do what I did and find a new favourite Autumn photo on the internet, by searching for 'Free images of Autumn' ).

- Scrap the photo using appropriate autumnal colours
- Incorporate crumpled paper on your layout
- Incorporate ribbon on your layout
- Include a quote about Autumn (again, internet searches are great for this!).

And here is my sample layout (with thanks to Chelle and Kylie for your assistance) -


Thanks for looking!

Ness.
xoxo

Another 2 layouts to share ...

Hello all -

I have been a busy little bee again over the last couple of days - I finished off another layout that I half-started at the crop a couple of weeks ago, and also did a DT sample for Scrapping Around, using the lovely new Kaiser Argentella papers.





I've also got a couple of cybercrops to tell you about too - the Scrapping Around March cybercrop kicks off this Thursday night, at 7.30pm. The theme for this month is 'Autumn'.

Also, the March month-long Cybercrop at Scrapchat gets underway this weekend too - starting at 7.00pm Queensland time on Friday night.

Well, I'm off to go play cricket outside with the boys now - hope you're all having a lovely Tuesday!

Talk to you soon,
Ness.
xoxo

Stampin' Up! Retired List is out ...

Hello all - it's almost time for the new Stampin' Up! Ideas Book & Catalogue to be released, and to make way for all the lovely new items, it's time to retire some of the current Ideas Book stock.

Here is a link to the official list on the Stampin' Up! website of those products from the current catalogue that will be retiring. Some of these sets are discounted by 25%! There is only one more month left to order these retiring stamp sets, so if you would like to order any, please send me an email (vbradford@optusnet.com.au) - but be quick - stocks aren't going to last too long at these prices!

Also, with the arrival of the new catalogue, there will be some price increases which will come into effect on the 1st of April 2009. For example, the ink pads will be $11.95 (currently $9.95), and the papers will be $19.50 (currently $11.95).

So, now is a great time to get your orders in, before the price rises!

New papers to play with ...

Hello again -

I hope this week finds you all happy and well.

I made a trip to my local Scrap Shop the other day, prior to going to a new Melbourne crop with Kath, and bought some of the papers from the new Basic Grey ranges - Marrakech, Bittersweet and Porcelain. They're just lovely! I also got some of the papers from Ambrosia, Urban Prairie and Offbeat - Basic Grey really are pumping out some great stuff lately!

Here's a layout that I started at last weekend's crop, and then all my inspiration flew out the window, so I couldn't finish it off. I got to the stage where I was just shuffling paper around on the page, and Kath was laughing at me, so I put it aside and half-started something else.

I finally got around to working on it again last night - just love the Ambrosia range. I did start out loosely basing it on a Pagemaps sketch, as inspiration had failed me, but then fiddled with it more, and ended up with this :)


I hope to try and get another layout finished soon (maybe tonight??) that I started on the weekend ... but I'm still a bit stumped for a title. I just adore the photo of my two boys, and normally titles are not something that I struggle with, but I've got nothing yet for this one. Hopefully inspiration will strike for that one soon!

Melbourne's weather is not sounding too good for tomorrow, with high temperatures and high fire danger again, so for everyone's sake, I'm really hoping that we don't have any more fires break out ...

I hope you all have a fabulous weekend planned, and I'll talk to you soon.

Ness.
xoxo

Some more layouts to share ...

Hello all :)

I've been on a bit of a roll with my scrapping lately - I think it's because I was scrapping-deprived while we were away, I'm trying to make up for lost time.

Here is a layout that I did last night of a great pic of Ashton on his first day at school, and also a couple of layouts that I had started back at Warana last year that I finally finished off last night as well.




And here is page 1 of the Book of Me that I have started as well. Now my challenge is going to be finding (or taking) some half-decent photos of myself for the BOM. Hmmm ..... I like being behind the camera, not in front of it!


And finally, just a quick hello to Kath too :)

Talk to you soon,
Ness.
xoxo